Tool Box - Photoshop Tutorial

Tool box is a part of every graphical software. Also it is in Photoshop to assist us.

Photoshop tool box contains a large collection of tools, with which we can edit images for various purposes. The tools are very useful for a graphic designers or image editors. 

Below given is a model of Photoshop Tool box. By toggling at the top button, you can change the appearance of tool box.  It will vary with versions.

When we select a tool in tool box, the options bar will also show options of that tool.

Below given the list of tools we are discussing in this tutorial.

• Marquee Tools
• Move Tool
• Lasso Tools
• Quick Selection/Magic Wand Tool
• Crop Tools
• Slice Tools
• Eye Dropper Tool/Note Tool
• Healing Tool/Patch Tool
• Brush Tool/Pencil Tool
• Clone/Pattern Stamp Tool
• History Brush Tools
• Eraser Tools
• Gradient Tool
• Paint Bucket Tool
• Blur Tool/Sharpen Tool
• Smudge Tool
• Dodge Tool/Burn Tool
• Sponge Tool
• Pen Tool
• Type Tool
• Path / Direct Selection Tool
• Shape Tools
• Hand Tools
• Zoom Tool
• Change Screen Mode
• Quick Selection
• Foreground/Background Color

Photoshop Basic Concepts Canvas, Layers, Path and Opacity.

Canvas

• Canvas is a new work place
• Canvas is in square shape and has width and height
• The units of width and height maybe Pixel, Inches, Centemeter, Millimeter,Points, Picas, Columns
• The canvas has a colour mode it may be Bitmap, RGB, CMYK, Lab Color and Greyscale
• The canvas also has a background content. It may be white or background colour we have selected or transparent.

Layers

• Layers are an important concept in photoshop
• Layers are arranged in a canvas
  
• If we selected the canvas content as Transparent, then there is no background (instead there is Layer 0)
  
• If the top layer is fully covered the canvas, then we cannot see rest of the layer’s content under it. We can only see the portions of a background only through the transparent area of those layers above it.
  
  

Path

• Paths are not drawn as pixels, it is not a picture content. We can consider it as a vector content.
• It has multiple functions and can be discuss in our experiments later.

Opacity

• Opacity denotes how much opaque a Layer is
• It is measured in Percentage (in Photoshop)
• If opacity is 0% then the layer is transparent
• If opacity is 100% then the layer is best visible
• Here in the picture shows the White Colour of 3 Layers with different Opacity value
  

Photoshop User Interface – Workspace

Photoshop’s user interface is known as Workspace

• There are Menu Bar, Options Bar, Tools Bar & Palettes in the workspace
• Menu Bar holds menu items
• Options Bar contains options relating to the Tool we have selected currently from the Tools Bar
• Tools Bar contains tools which are useful for Image Editing / Designing works
• Palettes Bar include several palettes like Layer, History, Character and so on. They are much useful for every work.
•  If we couldn’t find a workspace with all these options, then we can reset the workspace from Window->Workspace->Reset Essentials

We can also show/hide different Palettes from the Window menu

The Images are of Adobe Photoshop CS6